Free Heart Surgery for 1000 Patients

KOCHI:
Kerala Heart Foundation will arrange financial support either partially or fully to 1000 Below Poverty Line patients in the year 2017 to 2019 for free heart surgeries.
Roughly the cost of a subsidized heart surgery suggested by the committed health care institutions is Rs 1.5 lakhs. Individuals and institutions can choose the number of patients they want to help directly or through Kerala Heart Foundation. Patients who needs surgery could register through the website (www.keralaheartfoundation.com) or through Kerala Heart Foundation.
Dr. Kuldeep Chulliparambil, President, Kerala Heart Foundation, said that Kerala Heart Foundation will verify the credibility of each application and those eligible will be provided with financial assistance. The free heart surgery programme will be formally launched by Padma Shri Dr. K.J Yesudas at a charity function to be held at Gokulam Park Hotel on April 6th , where he will be honored for his contributions. This will be followed by his Sangeetha Kachery. And the fund will be received mainly through sponsorship from Individuals, Corporate CSR funds and other fund raising events.
According to Dr. Kuldeep Chulliparambil, heart surgeries are one of the expensive form of common treatment which our society find it difficult to afford and our public health institutions are not able to carry it out effectively due to its sophisticated technicalities and demanding skill set.
There are six advanced cardiac centres under public sector and nearly 20 centres under private sector.
He pointed out that the Centres under public sector are largely over crowded and many a time are unable to serve a major section of our society. Among the public advanced heart surgery centres in Kerala, only
Sree Chithra Thirunal Hospital, Thiruvananthapuram, Kottayam Medical college and Kozhikode Medical College have a competently working heart surgery centre.
At these Centres they have a long list of waiting patients and majority of the patients have to wait for a long time to get treatment from here. Districts like Kannur, Thrissur, Malappuram, Ernakulam, Allappuzha and Kollam do not have any heart surgery centres in case of an emergency. There are many advanced cardiac centres under the private sector which are not affordable to a large section of our predominantly rural society. It is not unusual to see a patient’s family struggling to meet their given medical advice because of socio-economic factors. Considering these factors, the Foundation decided to provide free heart surgeries for the weaker sections of the society.
About Kerala Heart Foundation
Kerala Heart Foundation was registered in 2012 as a charity trust and has district wise presence throughout Kerala. The organization is engaged in social research, granting research fellowships, conducting public functions to spread awareness and arrange financial support to needy patients. This organization was founded by Dr.Kuldeep Chulliparambil, Dr.Gopalakrishnan, Dr.Gulam Ali and Dr. Avery Mathew., all eminent
cardiac experts of Kerala. Since the inception, the organisation has 15 branches in each district and their main activities include awareness classes, heart attack prevention checkup camps and arranging finances for
needy patients.
Advisory Board of Kerala Heart Foundation
1.. P. Rajeev, Member of Parliament
2. P.A.Harris,Chairman, standing committee, Cochin Corporation
3. Venu Gopal.C.Govind, Managing Director,Varma and Varma Charted Accountants
4. Dr. Prakash Arakkal, Governor, Rotary 3201
5. Dr. V.V. Bashi, Cardiac Surgeon
6. Dr. Sunil Mathai, President,IMA, Cochin
7. Dr. Junaid Rahman, Former Supt, Ernakulam Dist. Hospital
8. Sreenivasan, Retired RBI
9. Dr. Vinod Thomas, Cardiologist
10. Dr. Shafique Rahman, Cardiologist
The press was addressed by Dr. Kuldeep Chulliparambil, President, Kerala Heart Foundation and Mr. T.K.V Menon, Secretary,Kerala Heart foundation at Ernakulam Press Club today. For more details, Ph; 9961014446 (Dr. Kuldeep Chulliparambil).